


Giving Thanks and Other Things

by KrastBannert



Series: The Good, the Bad, and the Life in Between [8]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: And by light I mean very light, F/M, Family Feels, Fluff, Gaang (Avatar) as Family, I'm Bad At Tagging, Light Angst, M/M, Not Beta Read, Sort Of, Team as Family, Thanksgiving, This is kinda trash but you know what I wanted to write it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-26
Updated: 2020-11-26
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:21:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27719476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrastBannert/pseuds/KrastBannert
Summary: Fourteen years after the war, the Gaang and their families gather together at the Jasmine Dragon for Ba Sing Se's Mid-Autumn Festival, a holiday to gather together friends and family and give thanks for the blessings of life. In the midst of the party, Iroh takes a moment, and simply observes over a cup of tea.-----Or, I started getting Thanksgiving feels, and wanted to write something really self-indulgent.
Relationships: Aang/Katara (Avatar), Azula & Kiyi (Avatar), Bato/Hakoda (Avatar), Ikem/Ursa (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Jet & Zuko (Avatar), Jet/Jin (Avatar), Kanna/Pakku (Avatar), Longshot/Smellerbee (Avatar), Lots of friendships mentioned, Mai/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar), The Gaang & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: The Good, the Bad, and the Life in Between [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1858354
Comments: 7
Kudos: 40
Collections: avatar tingz





	Giving Thanks and Other Things

_“_ _He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.” – Epictetus_

-[--]-

He leans against the railing, takes a deep breath, and lets it out slow as he sips his tea, gazing out at the setting sun silhouetted against Ba Sing Se’s wall. The Jasmine Dragon was full to bursting, and he still felt guilty about asking Jin to work the equivalent of a triple shift to help him make enough food, but it wasn’t often that he had gatherings like this. Not anymore. And he’s not as young as he used to be. He doesn’t have even half the energy he had just a few years ago.

She’d just given him that confident, self-assured grin she had become famous for, and said she was happy to do it.

That, Iroh thinks, is just one of the things he has to be grateful for.

For a brief moment, he’s taken back to another gathering – much smaller, and much more somber. It had been twelve years since the war ended, twelve years since that first gathering, and so much had changed.

He turns, leans back gently against the stone railing, and he has to smile at everything he sees. The group that has taken over his tea shop is large, the largest it’s ever been.

A sea of faces, new and old, all cast in a mix of joy and contentment. It’s beautiful, he thinks. It’s beautiful, because family and friends are the things he loved most. The things that matter. It’s that very thing which he’s grateful for.

He takes a look around, revels in the gentle warmth that blossoms in his chest.

These people – they were truly his family, and his closest friends.

There was his sister-in-law, Ursa, standing with the older women – Chit Sang and Jee’s wives, and Hakoda’s mother – excitedly chattering over, at a guess, some sort of gossip.

Chit Sang and Jee stood nearby with Bato, Hakoda, and Ikem, cold glasses clutched in their hands as they debated something completely inane with an intense ferocity once reserved for the battlefield. Bato and Hakoda had their arms linked together. Whenever he saw them together, Iroh felt inexplicably happy. It had taken them far too long to get over the hump, in his humble opinion.

There was Zuko, his precious nephew, talking in hushed, excited tones with Aang and Jet, their faces flushed red from the firewine that Iroh _really_ needed to hide better.

And on the other side of the room was Azula – Azula, who was stronger than him, who had glimpsed the darkest depths of her mind and had clawed her way back to sanity. Azula, who had struggled and forgived and been forgiven, who he was proud of every day and who he was proud to call the daughter he’d never had himself. She was coaching Kiyi in Pai Sho, and the pair was handily winning against the combined might of Tom-Tom, Sokka, and Piandao.

Ty Lee, Mai, Suki, Katara, and Jin stood nearby, gushing over baby Kya instead of milling with the older women. Iroh would never understand that group – the five of them, along with Azula, were utterly mismatched, and yet they were the best of friends. Toph and Smellerbee would likely have been with them, but Longshot – no, _Kazon_ , he had to remind himself – had pulled Bee outside, and Toph had asked her mother to teach some sort of earth bending technique.

That did truly surprise him. Toph had never, not even _once_ , indicated to him that she would like to reconnect with her parents, but five years ago she had simply walked into the tea shop with her mother tow, and that was the end of that. He didn’t question it. He supported it, in fact, and he was pleased that she had chosen a path of forgiveness.

He took another sip of tea, if only to take a break from smiling. Agni, seeing all these people, seeing the changes in them all over the past twelve years…it was magical. Soon, they would gather around the great table he had had set up in the tea shop’s main room. And later, after the sun had set, the great Mid-Autumn Festival of Ba Sing Se would begin, and this group would disperse to watch the stage shows and street dances, to celebrate life, and all that it had brought them.

It was his favorite celebration, his favorite holiday. And every year, _every_ year, he wishes his son could be here with him.

He’s been slowly making his way to the back of the room, to the little table that’s set up there. He looks down at the pictures arrayed there – Chit Sang’s daughter, Izumi, Jee’s brother and son, and his own beautiful son, Lu Ten. Incense burns in front of the pictures, filling the room with the scent of jasmine and sandalwood. He smiles sadly at his son’s face, fingers brushing over the photo.

“I wish you were here, my son,” he whispers.” You would be so proud.”

“Speaking to your son, I see,” a voice says behind him. Iroh turns and smiles at Pakku; he’d know his voice anywhere, with that smug confidence that never seemed to go away, even now that he was closing in on one hundred years old.

“That I am,” Iroh says, and turns to face his son again, and his heart throbs. Fourteen years since he lost him, and the pain still felt fresh.” I miss him every day. But he showed me my mistakes, and that people can change.”

“Everything changes, my friend,” Pakku replies, and Iroh smiles.

“I know. You taught me that.”

There’s a sudden shout, and the two whirl around, only to burst out laughing.

Sokka has a thick gag sticking out of his mouth, and Aang, Zuko, and Jet hold him down onto his chair as Izumi, Kya, and, to Iroh's great amusement, Sokka's own _children_ , Sakari and Akira, rush around him with a ball of rope. Azula and Kiyi had collapsed onto the floor, clutching their stomachs in laughter. The other girls giggle off to the side, and Chit Sang lets out a throaty laugh as he slaps Hakoda on the back. The wiry man presses a hand to his forehead, shakes his head in exasperation.

“Well, maybe not _everything_ ,” Pakku comments, trying to catch his breath.” I still wonder if those four will ever really grow up.” Iroh simply smirks and shakes his head.

No, he supposes, not everything does.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed my extremely nonsensical ramblings. There's a strong possibility that this will be re-written at some point, once my finals are finished in two weeks and I can actually breathe. In the meantime, please - drop me a review, let me know what you liked and what you didn't, what worked and what was...well, trash. Anything you say is helpful.
> 
> (Title ideas would be helpful, too - I'm not entirely happy about this one).
> 
> But anyways - that's not what this fic was about. I was inspired to write this by two things: the fanart by Tamberella on DeviantArt of the Gaang sitting around a big table eating (https://rb.gy/epcjqc), and just the idea of Thanksgiving.
> 
> So, to everyone out there who might be reading this: Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. Take a day to relax and spend time with your family and friends. Out of the past decade, I think this might be the year we've all earned a break.
> 
> Wear a mask and stay out there, my dudes.
> 
> -Krast


End file.
